Travis Whaling,43, of Byron and Craig Purcell,50, of Owosso patch pot holes in Kelley Road in Mount Morris Township on April 26 as part of the 20 patching crews to work 20 hours in the next two days.
Sammy Jo Hester | MLive.com

GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- The county is going after some of the area's most pothole-ridden roads, sending out 20 patching crews to work 20 hours in the next two days.

Road Commission Manager-Director John Daly said he's taking advantage of the forecast for warmer, dry weather to attack the problem with overtime and 160 tons of asphalt.

"Everybody is working," Daly said of the 20 teams, each of which include four to five maintenance employees.

"We're seeing a lot more potholes because of the amount of moisture we had, and we are still going through the (end of the) freeze-and-thaw" cycle, he said. "We're just going to have to incur the overtime."

Road Commission employees typically work four, 10-hour days, making them available for overtime work on Fridays and -- for this job -- Saturday as well.

Travis Whaling, 43, of Byron and Craig Purcell,50, of Owosso patch pot holes in Kelley Road in Mount Morris Township on April 26 as part of the 20 patching crews to work 20 hours in the next two days.
Sammy Jo Hester | MLive.com

Daly said all maintenance workers were recruited to work on the pothole crews, and the resulting overtime is expected to cost about $67,000.

The pothole work itself is a temporary patch for the county road system.

A 2012 report from the county Planning Commission says that the condition of the most traveled roads in the area is getting worse instead of better and at least triple the current level of funding is needed to reverse that trend.

The Planning Commission's assessment was based on the inspection of 2,722 miles of asphalt and concrete last year. The report graded 41 percent of roads as being in poor condition -- needing major rehabilitation or reconstruction.